The Last Knights of Cambria Book 5: Deaths of the Rose

Chapter 3: Siri, play "Back in Black" by AC/DC

Black boots on the bloody stone floor. I hear soft whispering of spells. Red light pours everywhere. Magic whips around us. I raise my eyes, slowly, blinking blood from them.
Black robes, black cloak, dark brown hair. And the slightest stoop to his shoulders. Eyes glowing red with magic.
I feel myself grin. Oh yes.
Richard. Simply Richard, youngest of the infamous York brothers. One day elevated to Duke of Gloucester. And then one day king, the last English King to die in battle.
Richard III.
As a youth he served and did his knighthood training under Warwick, that would be why he's here. Once he's knighted, by his brother, he'll rise to the Dukedom of Gloucester and win plenty of battles for the Yorks, though he prefers his wife's company or waging war to the tediousness of court. After his brother's somewhat untimely death he'll become King of England, for just three years before he's deposed by Jasper and the remaining Lancasters. Killed in battled, and buried in a field after being torn apart, in 1485, not to be found until 2012, when his skeleton is uncovered beneath a parking lot.  He'll go down infamously, primarily thanks to William Shakespeare, who could hardly paint him as a hero in front of Tudor loving audiences. Richard might not be a hero, but he's a child of war, orphan of the War of the Roses, no more guilty of worse sins than any man in this room, myself included. He'll grow up to take lives on the battle field, as we all do, and for his family. But by all accounts he'll be a kind husband and father, fair king, and decent uncle to his orphaned nieces and nephews.
But right now I'm guessing he's all of elven or twelve, born in 1451 just a year older than our Prince Edward, and well into the child-endangerment portion of his youth, when he gets to learn to be a knight and go on fun little adventures.
Like this one.
Richard slams the doors closed behind himself, casting furiously as the ghosts fly at him. He's well rested and seems to have low regard for wearing himself down, this is a boy who will earn the epithet of 'Boar' his symbol later in life, intended to be an analogy for his ferocity on the battle field. It's an apt enough comparison.
I catch a few of the spells and redirect them with my own magic. I can't really stand and I'm running on fumes but we're not losing anymore. Richard did decent damage attacking from behind.
He moves with us fluidly, surprisingly skilled with the sword even while attempting to defend himself with spells. The ghosts are preoccupied with the new comer, turning from us almost completely. Warwick elects to rest. Jasper and I leap forward, too stubborn to die now, and ready to lay into the ghosts who are now easy targets as they try to attack the boy.
For his part, Richard fights fiercely, barely reacting to our presence, his eyes glow red smoldering with light, and he wields the sword which is nearly as tall as he is, with a practiced ease. He can't fight them all off, he's clearly going to try though. Ignoring Jasper's and my aid and instead throwing himself into the last batch of the things.
"This is why you die," I mutter, to only myself, physically dragging him backward from a larger ghost that was about to run him through. Jasper leaps on it and casts one final spell to dispel it.
I drop Richard and we both cast at the remaining ghosts, Jasper is weak and struggles to rise, blood draining from his eyes and mouth and ears. I'm little better, I know, and must lean on my sword to stay upright.
Jasper and I both look around ensuring the rest of the foes are gone. The knights who we brought with us are still standing, mostly, but all of us are injured.
Richard is injured as well, but not as badly as the rest of us. The stubborn boy walks directly up to Warwick, glaring at him. The red magic has melted from his eyes to reveal they are a deep, dark blue. He spits a mouthful of blood directly at Warwick's feet, "STOP leaving me behind."
Apparently he was left out with the horses, and he did not think he should be. I'd laugh at the boy's cheek, but I'm still trying to breath.
"I told you to stay outside, where's the other one?" Warwick asks, shoving Richard away from him, a little. He asks it not like he's worried about the other child he's responsible for, but like he's hoping it died.
"Are you all right?" The other little boy scurries from his hiding place, perfectly all right though a bit shaken. He runs up to Richard and sort of hides behind him to avoid Warwick.
"I'm fine, Hal," Richard says, patting his little friend. Oh, is this Henry Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham? Yes, likely it is. Immortalized as Buckingham in Shakespeare's fan fiction of the events, Henry Stafford is Richard's battle buddy, they grow up together, yeah, both doing their knighthood training under Warwick. They remain good friends for the rest of their lives, up until Henry Stafford mysteriously joins the remaining Lancasters, early in Richard's reign. To this day there is no known reason why he would betray his friend. He and Richard fight side by side for years, and remain close confidants (that's as gay as you want to make it, might not be, but you know), and so his betrayal has puzzled historians for years, often blamed on Richard's non-existent crimes which were wholly Tudor propaganda.
"Can you stand?" I mutter, to Jasper, kneeling to help him and nearly falling myself. He pulls himself to his feet, painfully, accepting my arm all the same. We both have fought and won two battles, now we are more done. And I think we're both a little disturbed that we were so close to losing.
"Aye," Jasper nods, though it's clearly not true.
"What happened to the horses? You were meant to stay with them?" Warwick says, to Richard. The boy is small, in truth he'll never be a tall man, his skeleton revealed he was about five foot eight, average height, likely shortened a bit by his scoliosis, by a bit I mean to about five one. Scoliosis, a disease which in many cases, causes curvature of the spine, in Richard's case a moderate c-shape, it would have early onset about age ten, and worsen as he aged. By his death at thirty-three it was likely fairly noticeable and would have caused him some back and shoulder pain, though there's little to no documentation to reflect it bothered him. He was noted as usually wearing black or dark colors, to hide his posture. Of course by the time it gets to Shakespeare's day, he'll have a hunch back, limp, and a couple of other things, 'sent into the world scarce half made up'. No, real Richard was mostly fine. While it's likely his disability was noticeable or caused some pain, as it is here, it's not bothering him much, ergo he still gets to do general child endangerment and sword related activities like anyone else. Try stopping him.
"The horses are tied up. Because they're horses, and I'm in here, finishing your fight," Richard says, hands on hips, indignantly. This is slightly cute in that dressed in black with blood on his face, chocolate curls a mess, and big blue eyes brimming with anger, one shoulder a bit lower than the other, he's more precious than fierce, despite his recent display of power.
"I did say you should take him with you, and I'd stay with the horses," little Hal pipes up, but he stands behind Richard. He's three years Richard's junior, and so he's just eight or nine, definitely the sidekick here and clearly a bit afraid of Warwick. I think it's very obvious given oh I don't know BOSWORTH FIELD, Richard has very little healthy fear in him. I'm just saying two times is a lot of times to have a 100% mortality rate of your personal guard in battle, I mean the second time he'll die too but still.
"Shut up. Both of you, now," Warwick snarls at them.
"This the rest of your party, Warwick? Or did you leave more page boys outside?" Jasper asks.
"I'm not a—," Richard starts talking but Hal Stafford physically covers his mouth. I'm guessing Richard is supposed to be doing sorcery training with Warwick as well, so he was going to correct Jasper and say he's not just a page. Or maybe he's a squire now. He is short, and chubby cheeked, he looks little older than Hal, and Jasper likely doesn't know who he is. He wouldn't guess one of the York boys would be coming with Warwick here, and at this point in history Richard is little else than the hunch backed youngest brother the eleventh born child. In large families which were fairly common in the day he's statistically unlikely to become anything, except a footnote in his elder brother or father's story.
"The boys hid during battle, so they are all that survived," Warwick says.
"You tied me to a cart," Richard gets his mouth free.
"Rich, that didn't stop you," Hal hisses.
I am going to point out tying the kid to something was not a good way of preserving him. I am also going to point out preserving the kid may not be Warwick's chief concern.
"The boys can stay outside and mind the horses. I still must meet with the Queen," Warwick says.
"You can't send them outside; the monsters are still out there," I put in, before Jasper agrees to do it.
"Why did you bring your —squires?" Jasper seems minorly amused by the situation and the amount of back talk Warwick is getting. "Especially one that you're training in magic."
"I'm not a squire. I'm a knight," Richard says, because no one has stopped him from talking, "I'm Richard Duke of Gloucester, you should bow to me."
"Shut your mouth," Warwick snarls, with ferocity enough that I jump and move behind Jasper.
"Why—on earth—," Jasper chooses a different expletive but leave it, "Would you bring Edward the Pretender's younger brother, here?" He's referring to Edward IV, who has apparently assumed the throne here. He'd knight Richard when the boy was nine, a few years ago, and Richard has his tutelage (training) under Warwick till he's sixteen, at which point he starts getting his own armies to command. You know. Like you do with sixteen year olds.
"I did not bring him here," Warwick says.
"He did not bring us here," Richard says.
"We hid," Hal elaborates, proud.
"I wanted to see where he was going," Richard says, with zero shame,"Who are you?"
"I did not bring them," Warwick reiterates, trying to cover Richard's mouth, but the boy steps away from him.
"I'm gonna put all of you in that cell—we're gonna—all three of them, that cell," Jasper says, to the knights, "Now. We'll tell the King and Queen and figure out what to do with them in the morning."
And at the prospect of having to spend the night in a cell with the two preteen boys who are both currently trying to talk to him and sass him, Warwick decides that Jasper and I are more pleasant company. And he gets desperate, attempting to sell us his first born child in exchange for not spending the night with the disrespectful minor children in his custody. And no, reader, I'm not exaggerating.
"Look, look, we can go and talk someplace, Tudor, you've no wife yet. My oldest daughter is nearly of age—," Warwick is saying, completely pleasantly, while he is essentially forced into the cell.
"Is this not—cruel to the children?" I ask Jasper, wincing. I definitely want to do this to Warwick, but the boys didn't do anything wrong. They're on the opposite side sure, but they are actual children and to be fair Richard saved all of us by coming to help.
"Ah—," Jasper looks over, as Warwick is forced in the cell.
Hal is tugging on his jacket, "Can I have something to eat?"
"Do I look like I have food?" Warwick snarls.
"So what's your grand plan then? Just so I can tell my brother the king, and my mother, who will want to hear, of all of this—," Richard is asking, incredibly condescendingly, sort of using sunshine hands for maximum sass, "The part where we nearly die on the road or the part where we are put in the cell—what exactly is the highlight of your plan so I can prepare my report?"
"Shut your MOUTH Richard, or I will shut it for you. Don't think I can't strip your teeth out boy, how well do you think you'd talk then?" Warwick snarls.
"I really am hungry," Hal continues tugging on his coat.
Jasper and I look at each other.
"I think the boys are fine," Jasper says.
"You know what? Yeah, they are doing the abusing right now," I say. Warwick is clearly threatening them. But honestly Richard has more strength than he does at the moment. And I don't want them getting in more trouble or attacked. No, they're safer there, and he is their legal guardian, for lack of a better word. There's little we can do right now and I'm exhausted. As much as I hate leaving any child with an abusive care giver, I have to admit my options are limited.
"See that they're brought food and water and any medicine they require, especially for the boys," Jasper tells one of the knights.
"The boys aren't injured."
"They still might be," Jasper shakes his head.
I look over my shoulder one more time. The argument is still going on full force in the cell. Hal has gone to hide behind Richard who is arguing vehemently with Warwick who is clearly threatening him to shut up, but is too ill to make good on the threats.  I sigh. I really don't like leaving them there but I am well aware neither boy is going to be receptive to us either.
"Let's get some rest," Jasper says, patting my back.
I nod. My god I need it.